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My Ginger Ale, FWD, 2.0L Titanium, with Parking Technology Package is scheduled to arrive next week and I can't wait! I took a test drive in a 4WD Titanium for the first time a few weeks ago and was totally impressed with the quietness of the cabin, steering response and the power of the engine. The only option I now wish I had added is the Panoramic Vista Roof. I chose not to add that to my car because of the cost. The Escape I drove had one and it was nice to have all the day light and feeling of openness in the cabin. The rear seats fold very easily without having to remove the headrest. With only the push of a button the headrests fold forward and lay behind the front seat by the rear floor. One of the coolest features is the hands free lift gate and I see myself needing to take advantage of that feature often. It's unfortunate that the Escape has seen two recalls already, one minor and one more serious. The important thing is Ford reacted quickly and a good thing it only affects the 1.6L Ecoboost engine. I know there are a lot of skeptics and haters out there, but the fact is new designs are often plagued with growing pains regardless of the manufacturer and these issues should not deter anyone from considering or purchasing an Escape. I would never have considered buying an Escape before the redesign. The outdated, boxy design did not appeal to me and my opinion is clunky and old fashion.

Like you, the previous incarnation of the Escape held no interest for me. I will soon be ordering a 2013 Escape Titanium 4WD with parking technology and navigation in deep impact blue. No sunroof as I never use them. I also am impressed that Ford acted quickly on those recalls, always a good idea to nip potential problems in the bud before they become a major issue.

We picked up our new escape Thursday, July 19. We returned it on Saturday after we noticed that the roof is leaking and creating lovely water stains on both A-pillars. Also the rear lift gate is missalligned and on the way back to the dealership MFT went crazy, rebooted 20 times and died. We're waiting to see what Ford is going to do for us on Monday. Is this going to be recall 3? <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1795942/photo-9.jpg

Yeah, I've got the sunroof. Although there is no sign of water intrusion anywhere around the sunroof, just down the a-pillars. Of course water has a way of finding odd paths through a vehicle. It could be the sunroof, the roof rack, or maybe even a body panel problem, but its probably the sunroof. This Escape design is new, but the Kuga has had a panoramic roof for a few years. Its not like its a new thing for Ford on this platform.

We recently bought a White Titanium AWD model. All major options, except the park assist. We've mostly had foreign cars, but after the American car crisis, we felt strongly that we find a domestic model, if at all possible. We wouldn't have bought the prior Escape model and very much liked some of the new features. My wife LOVES the hands-free liftgate. She's always loaded down with stuff to put in the car so that feature was a real differentiator, (too bad they didn't figure out how to have that and a trailer hitch at the same time). The Car rides very well on the highway and we got 30MPG on the highway (2 hour ride) with 4 adults w/luggage and A/C on. The Sync system hung few times initially, but not in the last week. We were surprised that Ford's answer to this was to disconnect the battery. I haven't tried that ( and don't want to) since the system spontaneously revived after about 1.5 days. A few other things, if I shift from N to D and don't wait 2 seconds before giving it some gas, the transmission makes a strange rumbling noise. I've never seen that before... It seems to take a while for the GPS to acquire satelites sometimes even when ther is a clear view of the sky. Anyway, we're very happy with the car so far and hope the long-term reliablity doesn't make us regret going domestic.

I am glad to see somebody give some mpg figures as you need a real world person driving to report. Thanks

The issues you reported should be resolved by the dealer as they all sound like something is broken and you should not have to put with that. I too am coming out of German and Japanese cars for the last 20 years and hope Ford has things figured out. My prior 20 years have had maybe 3-4 issues in all those cars over 20 years and all very small brief fixes.

My ordered FWD 2.0 SEL arrived at dealer yesterday. On my test drive I experienced an incredible amount of torque steer. A WOT kickdown at ~ 40 MPH caused the car to swerve dramatically, left & right, and is clearly dangerous to drive.

When driving with a passenger in the front, it becomes acceptable. Dealer says it's normal for a FWD car, but they've only driven it with a passenger on board. I've emailed them a request to drive it solo. No reply.

The literature says that the 2013 Escape has electric power steering with "torque steer compensation." I suspect that the unit in this vehicle is faulty.

Has any of you driven a 2.0 FWD with no passenger on board? If so, what is your impression of the vehicle's torque steer? Or, can you direct me to a source of information on this issue?

So I am currently in the process of declaring my 2013 2.0 Titanium AWD (with ALL the options) a lemon.

It started on a long drive where the navigation system locked up, and would not turn off. National Ford service center said the only solution was to disconnect the battery or pull the fuse. Not great options...

I brought the escape in for the carpet recall, and had them look at the navigation system as well. A day later, it was returned to me with a new side console panel, and all the settings reset. They could not determine the problem with the navigation system, so they just wiped it. When I got into the car, the automatic windows wouldn't work (probably a by-product of resetting the system, and easily identified and resolved...but it was not identified nor resolved). Luckily I was still on the lot and returned to the service center. They could not fix it on the spot, and had to keep it another day.

Other issues with the vehicle:

Gas mileage does not come close to advertised specs. I get just under 20 MPG regardless of primarily highway or city driving (and I drive extremely conservative).

Underpowered. Once the boost spools up, it is barely adequate to accelerate to traffic speeds on the beltway. If I don't get that rolling start, cars are braking behind me.

Synch / MyTouch is far too buggy for sale. I frequently get about 30 seconds of delay whenever I try to input a command (both from the voice commands, and the touch screen). If that's not frustrating enough, I have to unplug and re-plug my iPhone in after each engine start or it won't play through the car. This creates a secondary effect b/c every time you plug in a new device, synch has to index and rebuild voice commands. I'm halfway to my destination before I can even begin to listen to an audio book or music.

It does have some nice convince features like the foot operated tailgate, and blind spot detectors (parking assist does not work, and it incessantly beeps whenever I park)

To top it all, when I got my Escape back the first time (it is still in the shop for the automatic window issue), it had a noticeable amount of bird crap on it.

It's the lack of attention to detail, and a plague of numerous problems that makes this vehicle a poor buy and an even poorer investment.

Ford should have done some further testing and QC before releasing it to the public.

Is the lemon law governed by state rules or is there one global lemon law?Not sure how that works but hopefully it takes care of you as that is a shame you had those problems. Some reviews I have read of people with same car seem to love it and reported 30mpg in a Titanium. You must really have a Lemon as surely everyone can't be like that. I have heard of times where the dealer will just take care of it and put you in a new car at the dealer ship without going down the lemon law path.

Many reputable dealers will do at least what you mentioned, and some will outright return your money (Chevy has an ongoing guarantee like this). I'm upset at this dealership, as they don't seem to care about the company name...

I was curious how the other people got such good gas mileage. Maybe they were mistaken in their engine size / drivetrain? Or maybe they trusted the onboard sensor instead of calculating it themselves (reset counter at each gas fill up, and do some minor division).

Anyway, I hope I can get my money back, and try again with a better product!

If you look at this forum one person with a Titanium which only comes with a 2.0 reported 30 mpg. Also another post had a water leak around their panorama roof that stained the headliner and they are getting new car and from I could read it was via the dealer. You should throw out the dealer name if this does not turn out well, so nobody else buys from them on the forum. Usually their is a Zone manager that gets involves in these things and you will not have to resort to lemon law as I doubt Ford wants the bad publicity and if they fix it for one customer as in the leaking roof they surely will help you. Don't throw the dealer under the bus yet as they may come through. You can also usually use a local TV station investigative reporter and they will call the dealership before airing a segment. That happebs frequently around St. Louis area where I live but has not been for cars that I have seen. Maybe the car dealers all stepped up and it never made it to the news. I test drove a 2.0 and got 27.6 on a 10 mile trip with air on, during a highway drive at 60-65 mph.

That makes me feel better as I have pretty much read positive reviews of 2013 Escapes on other forums. I you do a google search on 2013 Ford Escape you will see reviews from a number of other sites. I know people with various Ford's and they are very, very happy with their cars. They love the My Touch and eco boost engines. I just ordered a Titanium for delivery in mid September takes 6-8 weeks they said. Drove both 1.6 and 2.0 and worked out to get the Titanium for me cheaper than adding options to SEL. I would reading update from you about MPG and how things are going as I wait for my vehicle to arrive.

Well the service saga continues...but I might be hyper-sensitive: I was expecting to pick the Escape up today (for the automatic window reset...something that should take less than 5 minutes barring any complications). Yet I did not receive a phone call saying its done, much less a courtesy call explaining that it won't be done until Monday or why it is taking longer.

This makes the percentage of time the Escape will be in the shop since I purchased it: 21.7%

This is quite unacceptable for a new vehicle purchase.

@al63017: I hope it won't come to contacting a local news company. I would have to get a far worse treatment from Ford before I did that. The dealership does have a lot of time to resolve my issues, and I will give them the benefit of the doubt as much as I can (though their track record to date hasn't been great).

@tim156: well Maryland's lemon law does state that a dealership does have three chances to fix a non-safety related issue that will affect resale. I am thinking an unresponsive navigation / MyFordTouch could qualify, or if you have to turn it off by disconnecting the battery every time it freezes, or even if my gas mileage doesn't improve above 20 MPG.

But hopefully, they can either fix it, or resolve the issue before I have to push the lemon law.

I wish I got your gas mileage just once! I would have continued the wonder I had when I first purchased it!

And the bird crap...you're absolutely right. In the grand scheme of things, it matters less than what I ate for lunch, but it's the little things that make a great dealership (or lack of the little things that really solidifies a first impression)

@al6307: I really hope I have a special case, and the positive reviews all over the Internet are what led me to buy it in the first place! I really did love the looks of it (a sporty minivan look), and the technology suite was a deal closer. As the wonderful haze of new car euphoria wore off, I began noticing things that did not meet the expectations I had when I purchased it (MFT / Navigation / sync responsiveness, bugs with iPhone connectivity, locking nav/MFT system, gas mileage, ability to accelerate when required).

I hope you will enjoy it, and be able to overlook these issues if they are present in your vehicle, but maybe see if you can get a return guarantee from your dealership just in case.

Phil Edmonston guide also said, never buy a new version of the old car. Give a few years for the manufacturer to work out the bugs. We were going to buy the 2013, but the specs are so similar to the 2011, that is, the 4 cyl is half a liter smaller than the 6 cyl. so we opted. no car drives as the manufacturers specs indicate. ie. hybrid. Ford want to sell a suv, advertised specs are usually so out of wack with real world, just be careful about the sales pitches.this suv has been in europe for years. I am surprised at the bugs listed. Wikipedia has a good write up about the euro version.

When you are in the middle of something like that it is hard for others to really understand the helplessness it can make you feel. It sounds like you did what I did research and read and review and then look forward to a really neat car and get a problem child. I have to believe this is not the DNA of all these cars and you in fact have a "lemon" of some degree. I also believe your dealership is the one that should just take care of things. I also know from others that ZONE managers I think they call them come in when things do not go well. It may not be too early to just ask for another car. If they are replacing a car for a stained headliner because of a leaking sunroom--it would seem if these things continue you are in far worse shape than they are. Ask for the owner of the dealership at some point if service department and or your salesman do not help. I have most things resolved if I can deal with the person that has authority to make a decision and stay as calm cool and collected as possible. These people are like you and me in many cases they just work there and many times do not really have authority to make the decision you might want them to make. I don't think you have to over look those issues or would I or anyone be expected to do that or you. I read recently that National and Avis have bought these vehicles for their rental fleet so I got to believe they would not invest in something that would have safety and tons of down time. Sometimes the computer or brains of these cars can cause everthing you are experiencing and replacing that or who knows may fix everything.Let us know now and then how things are going. I think there will be happy ending to this as I can't see Ford just leaving you hanging off a cliff. Hang in there!!!!

This morning I took a 210 mile road trip which consisted of approximately 105 miles on the interstate and 105 miles of two lane highway. It was a dream to drive and I don&#146;t regret at all upgrading from my Focus, despite fewer mpg&#146;s and a higher monthly payment. This 2.0 has great power and acceleration and goes like crazy when you need it to. The 6 speed is smooth, but sometimes seems to be searching for the best gear to often. Overall the ride is smooth and the cabin is very quiet. The ride is a little harsh going over expansion joints and imperfections in the road traveling at freeway speeds, but that&#146;s to be expected for an SUV. The steering is very responsive in turns and curves and requires very little driver response in the straights. I tried to activate the Curve Control but couldn&#146;t. I guess between the Torque Vectoring and me being chicken, I may never experience that feature. If you want to squeeze out the best mpg&#146;s, you will need to be very light on the accelerator. I noticed when you take off from a stop with a heavy foot, the average mpg&#146;s drop very quickly. The highway portion of the trip in Western Wisconsin was all curving, rolling hills, with small towns every 8 to 15 miles or so apart. The mpg&#146;s reading is really sensitive on this car, much more than my Focus. It reacts to nearly every transmission shift when it&#146;s under any kind of load and drops a few tenths going up hills and vice versa going down, no surprise. The best mpg I got was 34.5, driving 55 on a straight flat road. On the rolling hills, with the cruise set at 58 (Wisconsin Troopers are notorious), I was getting 29-31 mpg&#146;s and generally when I&#146;d cruise into a town it would increase to 31.2 and drop to 28.4 as I got back up to speed. I&#146;ve always done this, but it&#146;s a good idea to use the accelerator to gradually get back up to speed then reset the cruise, rather than hitting the resume button, downshifting and racing to speed, your mpg&#146;s will take a BIG hit when the turbo kicks in. I did take it up to 110 for a brief time, maybe 45 seconds to a minute and it was smooth and handled really well. I tried to run it at different speeds; at 75 for 10 miles it read 26.2, at 70 I got 26.6 and at 60 got 28.7 and climbing, but I had to exit to head east to Wisconsin. Seems the mpg sweet spot is right around 60, again, no surprise. For the entire trip I averaged 28.7 mpg on Trip 2.It was a rainy and dreary morning and the rain sensitive wipers worked great, there are much more reliable and consistent than my Focus. Yesterday, after much work, I finally got the seat to where I like it. I only got out of the car twice and my butt and legs were comfy the whole time, no circulation cut off on my legs like in the Focus. Being able to tilt the front of the seat cushion down really helps. The Escape seat is wider and my left leg doesn&#146;t get strained by the seat bolster. There are a few things that could be improved on. The interior could use a cubby for cell phones, change or whatever. The side windows could use a rain channel, (remember cars before the 80&#146;s that had a big chrome rain channel) because the rain pours in off the roof. It was humid and the windshield fogged up easily, all I wanted to do is have some air flow but couldn&#146;t, had to use the defroster, which runs the condenser, which lowers mpg&#146;s. I don't like the look of side window deflectors, but they're a must if you want to drive with the window cracked when it's raining.The fit and finish of my interior is perfect. All the pieces line up, are tight and evenly spaced. There are no rattles, squeaks or thumps. There is some minor creasing in one area on the passenger seat and on the drivers side rear seat where the cloth and leather meet, but nothing to get worried about and someone not looking for it would never notice. Other than those two minor things, I couldn&#146;t find anything wrong with the interior, and I looked. The paint is flawless, but I suppose I might find something when I wax. All the doors and hatch are aligned perfect, all the body lines match and the tires were only inflated to 40 psi rather than 36. All in all a great package, excellent work LAP.I hope this helps those thinking of buying one, and gets those waiting for theirs even more psyched.

Okay you have to be an English teacher or a writer. What a great write-up. I have not read anything nearly that helpful in any of the reviews. I hesitate to put that hypen in this response as no clue if that is good grammar. An actual driving experience rather than vague descriptions.

I have a FWD, Titanium. I read your comments on torque steer and punched it a few times to see and I did not notice any. I went with the FWD because I live in the city and rarely need 4WD. I also wanted a little more mpg's. When I do go off road it's over there, not out there.

At work I write a lot of reports for Senior Management so over the years I've had to learn to be a better writer. I wasn't all that smart back in high school. My majors were Parking Lot, with a minor in reefer and Under the Hood with a minor in Beer Drinking.